March 27, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 23, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, March 26: The residents of Sector G-6 have demanded of the government to fulfil its promise of giving ownership rights of the existing housing units to them.

They also asked the government to recall its decision on constructing multi-storied flats after razing the quarters.

The residents were talking to reporters at a local hotel on Wednesday. The PPP MNA, Nayyar Bokhari, was also present on the occasion.

The MNA assured the residents of highlighting the issue, both inside and outside the Parliament, to discourage razing the quarters to the ground.

He said implementation of the new scheme would disturb law and order situation in the capital. The current residents should be given the ownership rights, he added.

Mr Bokhari said he intended to meet the prime minister, interior minister, secretary housing and Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman to resolve the issue. He also called for revocation of notices issued to the G-6 residents by the estate office asking them to vacate the quarters.

The MNA recalled that a Greek company, which developed the master plan of the federal capital, in a report suggested to sell these quarters to the occupants.

The governments of Ayub Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto also vowed to give these quarters to public servants on ownership basis, he added. “The Zia government even prepared a summary for allotting these quarters to the occupants.”

The PPP leader said the CDA fixed the price of these quarters at Rs900,000 per unit, while the ministry of housing and works also announced its decision in 1983 to give ownership rights to the occupants.

Mr Bokhari said Senate adopted a resolution in this regard, while the government of Benazir Bhutto decided to sell these quarters to the occupants. Nawaz Sharif also announced the same while speaking at a rally in Sector G-6, he added.

The MNA highlighted the repeated requests of Federal Employees Welfare Associations, a body of local residents, who asked the CDA not to proceed with the plan for building two-room multi-storied flats as many occupants would retire before completion of the project.

He said the association believed that the scheme would take more than 25 years to complete, while the plan would require replacement of existing facilities, including electricity, gas, telephone connections, water, and sewage lines as the present network could not sustain the pressure of over population.

The population in the sector will triple after completion of the project, which will require additional facilities like streets, roads, schools, colleges, hospitals, playgrounds, parks, and mosques.

He feared that the proposed flats would be expensive making it difficult for the government employees to buy the units.